[Complete] Sega Exodus - Old School is New Again

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SapAuthor

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The debug video airs this saturday with some performance and such...but this has been my project for the past 4 months.

Project Title: Sega Exodus
Concept: The Sega Genesis was once one of the fastest gaming machines around...and now it reclaims that title.

Case: Sega Genesis + CD Attachement
Core Specs:
Zotac 9300 itx Mobo
Core2 E8500 3.2 ghz processor
4 gb DDR2 ram
mGPU nvidia 9300
dGPU nvidia 9800 GT
320gb 2.5'' 7200 rpm WD Drive
Blu-ray Reader

Special Swag
On and off switch opens and locks the CD lid
Custom cut out Sonic Mech (with El Wire outline) over the case fan
On LED functions, and CD LED operates as the HDD LED
Reset Switch acts as power switch
Front Game ports are now USB ports
4 4inch blue led lights inside (on a switch so i can shut them off for watching blu ray movies) light this case up a nice Sonic blue.
CPU and GPU cooled directly from outside air, great cooling.


Here's the pics, these aren't the "final" pictures, those are on my mom's nikon camera i borrowed. My youtube channel, this april 10th debues the PC Mod to the general public. Check out my channel to see more info and it glowing nice and pretty.

Main gallery is here: http://www.sonicandpals.com/MyStuff/PCMod/, just a folder with my images. I also have a complete file with all pics, vids, etc. It's 150mb, so please PM me if you want the link to it, just don't want to bog down my host's server, I know him personally.

Here's the pics!
(Note, i'll have another couple to upload after tonight, i don't have a good one of it really glowing with all the CC lights)
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Never had a sega so not sure of how it was laid out. Was the center with the sonic cut out the original CD drive? Very awesome mod, any chance of some interior pictures?

I dont have the paitience to try what you have, but my suggestions are as follows:
1. Disasemble a DVD drive and install the guts into the old CD area so it works just as it originally did, but opening the cover to drop the CD onto the spindle.
2. Cut out the entire area over the large fan and just cover with mesh as you did. The shape does nothing for me and I would have never guessed it was sonic.

I notice the 24 pin on the back, how exactly is this unit powered? An external ATX powersupply?
 
In the original, the catridge was where the Sonic head cut out is. The sonic head isn't as noticable until you turn it on, as the head is outlined with blue el-wire, so looks really awesome once on ;-)

As for the CD, i initially was going to place the blu ray drive in the CD area, but once i put the motherboard and fan there, i realized there wasn't room for it. The design had to alter slightly as i went through. My goal wasn't just to put a PC into a sega genesis, but a gaming PC capable of playing Wii on down, 3D blu ray, and new games like L4D 2, Crysis, and CoD MW2. Some original plans had to be scrapped.

I will be uploading more picks friday-ish, i took detailed pic of all of the interior but it's on my mom's expensive nikon, so i got to head back over there to grab the photos off.

As for the pins, yeah, the power supply is just too big to fit inside of the case, barely had room for what I did, so it does have an external power supply. Eventually when i get a better power supply, I will place the power supply into a custom "case" of it's own, made of a couple Sega Genesis video game boxes.

Video and more to come soon! :) Any comments appreciated!
 
Thanks!

I just got the final piece in, and hooked up the 9800gt to it. Did some stress testing and benchmarking, it hovers at a max of 120F (although i should note, it's like 60F in my room rofl). and after tests, it drops about 1 degree ever 2 seconds till it gets back down to low 100 degrees. The cooling system is working awesome!

I'm going to test out the hybrid SLI on it, and then overclock the GPU and retest. I have the pictures of it, and will be making the video. April 10th i should have more stuff posted on this. But the Exodus is now at full powah!
 
I put up links to all the other pics. Anyone know if it's possible to actually SHOW the pics on the thread instead of an image link?
 
Just a thought but you may want to look into a way of grounding the unit. Having the PSU outside of the case eliminates your normal grounding element. And considering you have added a lot of stuff to an otherwise small enclosure and there seems to be a lot of custom wiring.
 
sadly not a lot of way to put a grounding unit IN the mod. Any ideas though on what would need to be grounded?

I did ensure that all the wires were capped, glued close, or otherwise not exposed. But what elements may cause a charge?
 
id say run an additional cable with the power lines from the PSU, and just attach that line to the housing of the PSU, that would make it a ground line, cause most PSU's have the ground wire from the outlet attached to the housing. then just put a standoff on your motherboard, and attach the other end of the ground to it. In theory having the motherboard grounded should carry on to the rest of the parts.
 
I'll have to take it into advizement, i think I could just attach it to the faceplace on the external since the motherboard's metal port housings are touching the faceplace and stuff...

Anyways, ran it for some test runs today. Played Crysis on All settings (except Shading and Shadows or what not) on high, 30-40 fps @ 1920x1200. Got to love it :p

Also here's a MUCH better pic of the mod, taken with my buddy's nice Sony camera, in all it's glowing glory:

exodus.jpg
 
Yeah man that thing looks amazing, and yeah, any metal surface should hold out. Even just having the power supply grounded would be fine, i only mentioned it as something to think about. I always try to overprotect my technology
 
Awesome. You should look for that extender piece that Sega used to give for hooking an older model genesis to the newer model Sega CD. It would fill in that area under the left of the genesis and make the look complete.
 
Should do that with mine. I have Old OLD school Sega CD.....That CD drive slot would work perfect for a real CD slot.

+1 mad props.

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sacrilege!!! that poor poor genesis! jk, thats a pretty cool mod but i love my old consoles too much to attempt something like this. love the exodus name though!! mattym is right about the grounding though. just run a line from the "chassis" to the psu and you'll be fine, run it inline with the atx header to hide it.
 
I'd like to do that, but there is a SEGA Genesis in my SEGA Genesis. It doesn't matter that I prefer to play the games in an emulator on my PSP. I would shed a tear if anyone tore it apart.
Nice work!

P.S. I can't believe you bought a SEGA CD. I played that Sewer Shark game at a Block Buster Kiosk on SEGA CD then I decided to not to buy one. Probably the worst game to use to make that assumption. I had started into PC gaming by that time, so I remember not being very impressed.
 
BallerX said:
P.S. I can't believe you bought a SEGA CD. I played that Sewer Shark game at a Block Buster Kiosk on SEGA CD then I decided to not to buy one. Probably the worst game to use to make that assumption. I had started into PC gaming by that time, so I remember not being very impressed.
Click to expand...

Lunar 1&2, and Shining force CD twisted my arm to spend the 500 bucks (499.99 msrp) if I remember correctly.
 
The Sega CD was worth it for Sonic CD, but IMHO that was about it, haha. I have a Sega CDX. I don't think I'd be able to fit much into it if I tried this, not that I'd ever take it apart anyway... too near and dear. :)

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That is incredible. The fact that you could squeeze all that into such a small space and still make it look good is impressive. Now all you need a USB modded Genesis controller to complete the look.
 
I actually have those two systems. The old style Sega Genesis, and the new style Sega CD. I spit on your Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. They don't have games with half the quality of Genesis.

BTW, Sega CD was worth it beyond Sonic CD.

Lunar The Silver Star
Earthworm Jim Special Edition
Night Trap

Though, the reason to own a Sega CD was to get games with improvements over the Genesis versions. Ecco The Dolphin, Mickey Mania, and Spiderman vs. The Kingpin were certainly worth to buy, if you didn't own the Genesis version. Problem was that, most people who got a Sega CD already owned those games for the Genesis. Lets also not forget that Sega CD had the best Terminator game, at that time.So the Sega CD version was very meh. Mostly because developers were lazy about improving the graphics for Sega CD.

Lets also remember that Sega CD is a music CD player, so if you wanted CD player, Sega CD wasn't a bad choice either. Plus, it came with internal memory storage for save games. Thus eliminating the need for save game codes. Well, games on Sega CD shouldn't have had any, but developers are lazy.
 
I had the genesis, but what is this?

Also:
Your clothes go in the closet on the hangers, or in the hamper, not on your bed.
 
great work and great project. love the little custom things like usb controller ports and sonic silhouette
 
Hnm... Since you're not playing Genesis any more, can I have your copy of Sub Terrania?
 
@steveDave
Go for it man. THe Zotac Mobo is killer for projects like this. Now sure how High the CD below and the sega on top is, you may not even need to fork out the $$ for a PCI-E extension ribbon. Cooling would be the only issue, but i'm sure you can rig up some fans on the sides!

@others
I got the Sega CD cuz it came with the Sega on ebay :p Got it and a 32x adapter pretty much just to play the retro sonic games. I actually had Sonic CD for PC, game rocked, the intro movie still is a classic!

And for all your posts (which i appreciate) here's my video i just made of it! It's meh birthday and i'll vid if i waaant to, vid if i waaant to, vid if i waaant toooo
http://www.youtube.com/SapAuthor#p/a/u/0/ZfZ8HpOrTUI

Enjoy!! :D
 
How exactly did you manage to install the 9800GT? It doesn't look like it's mounted on the mainboard.
 
via a PCI-E 16x extension ribbon. I at first bought two from China, but that didn't work (one did but both didn't). Also while trying to splice them, i killed my buddy Ben's south bridge on his mobo.

I had to get a custom 10 inch PCI-E Gen 2 Express cable from adelex.

But runs like a dream!
 
A little update. I got bored yesturday...took a small wireless adapter that came with the mobo and modded it inside of a sega genesis controller :p Got tired of switching the ethernet cable from my xbox to my PC.

Was a pretty simple mod. After splicing a USB cable to the card (it had the motherboard 4 pin internal connector, so i cut a USB cable and soldered the wires together), I drilled a hole through the D pad, screwed in the wireless antenna connection part, and then glued the small circuit board for the wireless inside. Sucks it's only Wireless G, but adds a nice touch :p

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Also, i did do a super Pi 1m, it did 1m in 15.5 some seconds. It's not that bad, but i have yet to overclock it, which eventually i will ;-)
 
Very nice looking. Some great inspiration there! :) I have 2 of those 2nd version Sega CD's and 1 original style. Awesome machines.
 
That it is!
Classic Game Room HD is the best game reviews video whatever on the internet.
 
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